HINDRANCES AND HELPS. 287 



its shrubbery, its vines, its arbors, instead of chal- 

 lenging unfavorable comparison with an entirely dif- 

 ferent class of homes ? If a man is disposed to ad- 

 vertise by flaming architecture and appointments 

 * I am only farmer by accident, and competent (as 

 you see) to live in a grand way,' there is little hope 

 that he will ever do anything to the credit of farm- 

 ing interests, or contribute very largely to the best 

 charms of our rural landscape. The attempt to bet- 

 ter one's condition is always praiseworthy ; but it is 

 only base and ignoble to attempt to cover one's con- 

 dition with an idle smack of something larger. 



There will always be in every moderately free 

 country a great class of small landholders, in whose 

 hands will lie for the most part, the control of our 

 rural landscape, and the fashioning of our wayside 

 homes, and when they shall take pride, as a body, in 

 giving grace to these homes, the country will have 

 taken a long step forward in the refinements of civil- 

 ization. If I have no coaches and horses, I can at least 

 hang a tracery of vine leaves along my porch, so 

 exquisitely delicate that no sculpture can match it ; 

 if I have no conservatories with their wonders, yet 

 the sun and I together can build up a little tangled 

 coppice of blooming things in my door-yard, of 

 which every tiny floral leaflet shall be a miracle. 

 Nay, I may make my home, however small it be, so 



